1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a management system, a management device, an image forming device, a management system control method, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been proposed a management system that manages consumables by monitoring the remaining amount of toner loaded in an image forming device. When the remaining amount of toner becomes low since a new toner bottle has been loaded in the image forming device, the management system provides a notification indicating the necessity of the replacement of the toner bottle. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-22277 discloses a management system that receives toner remaining amount information from an image forming device, determines that the toner bottle delivery time is reached when the received remaining amount of toner is less than a predetermined value, and provides a toner bottle delivery request based on the determination. In addition, the management system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-22277 determines the optimum timing for providing a toner bottle replacement notification using the remaining amount of a toner bottle loaded in an image forming device, the number of copies printed, and a coverage.
The management system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-22277 does not consider the case where a new toner bottle may be prematurely replaced before completion of the use of the toner bottle since the loading thereof in an image forming device. However, in practice, a user may replace a toner bottle even when the remaining amount of toner is still present in the toner bottle. The reason for this is because, in order to make an image forming device operate continuously during the night in a company or the like, a user who uses the image forming device may replace the previously loaded bottle with a new toner bottle before the user gets home from the company. If a toner bottle loaded in the image forming device is replaced before the toner stored in the toner bottle is completely used, a conventional toner management system cannot perform appropriate management.
Also, a maintenance service contract for an image forming device is present between the sales company of the image forming device and its customer. For example, in the contract, there is a clause that a sales company receives a maintenance service fee corresponding to the number of copies printed instead all the payment of toner used by the image forming device of interest shall be borne by the sales company. If a toner bottle in which the remaining amount of toner is present is discarded by a customer under the contract without complete use of the toner, the replacement of toner bottles may significantly exceed the assumption made by the sales company. In such a case, the sales company has no choice but to increase a service price for a maintenance contract itself in order to compensate an increase in toner payment due to the replacement of toner bottles exceeding the assumption. Such a cost increase may be disadvantageous for both the customer and the sales company. Thus, it is preferable that consumable such as a toner bottle is replaced after being completely used.